Sensors are used to detect or measure stimuli such as air pressure, temperature, humidity, moisture, mechanical pressure, optical, acoustic waves, motion, presence of chemicals or gasses, presence of biological matter, presence of metal, electromagnetic radiation, biometric parameters, visual pattern recognition, nuclear radiation and visual streams. Sensor information is used by monitoring and control systems to support a wide range of functions, such as adjusting environmental conditions (thermostat), fire detection and possibly triggering a fire suppression system (fire alarm), detecting and reporting intrusions and property theft (burglar alarm), maximizing energy efficiency (room occupancy detector) and identifying hazards including gunshots and explosions.
There are literally billions of sensors in use within the US, across organizations that include government agencies, businesses and consumers, with each organization owning and maintaining its sensors independently due to significant safety, security and privacy concerns. This “silo effect” is a barrier to interconnecting and sharing sensor information across multiple organizations. Indeed, these concerns not only prevent sharing sensor information across multiple organizations, they also prevent sharing even the existence of sensors across multiple organizations.
One attempt for overcoming the “silo effect” was the creation of the Unites States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) whose founding principle and highest priority is protecting the American people from terrorist threats. DHS combined 22 different federal departments and agencies into a unified, integrated cabinet agency when it was established in 2002. Creation of a single government department is one approach for solving the organizational problem of not having integrated monitoring and analysis of chemical, biological, metals, radiation, nuclear, and explosive (CBMRNE) materials.
A second attempt of trying to overcome the organizational “silo effect” was the creation of New York's Lower Manhattan Security Initiative which monitors 4,000 security cameras and license plate readers south of Canal Street. The project uses feeds from both private and public security cameras, which are all monitored 24 hours a day by the New York police department. Using face and object-detection technology, the police can track cars and people moving through 1.7 square miles in lower Manhattan and even detect unattended packages. The $150 million initiative also includes a number of radiation detectors and other security measures.
While creating a single government department such as DHS made possible integrated monitoring of CBMRNE materials and creating the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative made possible integrated monitoring of terrorist threats in lower Manhattan, these approaches for integrated monitoring to detect an emergency condition are not practical on a widespread basis.
By not sharing sensor information across organizations, timely and appropriate response to an emergency condition is greatly compromised. For example, a chemical attack detected by a DHS sensor could be much more meaningful if it were combined with video sensor information from nearby businesses. Similarly, an explosion detected by a DHS sensor could be combined with power outage sensor information to automatically show the impact of the explosion. On a smaller scale, local police response to a residential silent alarm being triggered could be more effective if the police had access to neighboring security cameras.
A real world example of this problem can be understood from the Boston Marathon bombings on Apr. 15, 2013, where a series of two attacks targeting spectators and attendees of the city's annual marathon took place. Two bombs exploded at approximately 2:49 pm EDT, killing three people and injuring an estimated 264 others. To identify the suspects, authorities had to sift through a mountain of footage from government surveillance cameras, private security cameras and imagery shot by bystanders on smartphones. It took the FBI three days to release blurry shots of the two suspects, taken by a department store's cameras. In those three days, the suspects killed a police officer and hijacked a civilian. Lacking information regarding the extent of the attack, the Federal Aviation Administration restricted airspace over Boston and issued a temporary ground stop for Boston's Logan International Airport. In addition, some Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority service was halted and several cities in Massachusetts and other states put their police forces on alert. Despite this massive over-reaction to the bombing attack that virtually shut down the city of Boston, FBI Director Robert Mueller commended the efforts of law enforcement, intelligence, and public safety agencies on their handling of the bomb attack.
There is a need for a system and method that: (1) monitors sensors belonging to multiple organizations; (2) detects an emergency condition based on sensor information; (3) associates a location with the detected emergency condition; (4) sends an emergency condition report to an authorized recipient where the report includes sensor information for sensors that are proximally located to the detected emergency condition; and (5) reports the existence of sensors belonging to multiple organizations.